Season 6

Mighty 200/ 2014 DWM Poll ratings

The War Games  29/ 12

The Invasion  31/33

The Mind Robber  60/73

The Seeds of Death   111/126

The Krotons 166/207

The Dominators   191/234

The Space Pirates   195/235

On this occasion the readers of Doctor Who Magazine have got it right with the poll topper. “The War Games” is an absolutely amazing piece of work, on pretty much any level by which you’d like to judge it. I will always love “The Mind Robber”, but if you asked me to say which is the best pure story of the sixth season of Doctor Who, then I would have to admit that it is “The War Games”. For sheer inventiveness I give it to “The Mind Robber” over “The Invasion”, but there really isn’t anything much in it. Getting down among the wines and spirits, and I’m going to surprise myself in saying this, but I think that I would give it to “the Krotons” above “The Seeds of Death”, followed by “the Dominators”, above “The Space Pirates”

My Ratings

The War Games

The Mind Robber

The Invasion

The Krotons

The Seeds of Death

The Dominators

The Space Pirates

Overall, although it was a season of varying quality, I think most of us would have to admit that it was a season which had no fewer than three stories which would have to be included in any discussion of the best Doctor Who stories of the 60s. It’s only a season ago that we had the Monster/Base Under Siege season, but the show moved on so much during season 6 that a story like The Seeds of Death, which followed that particular template seemed rather old hat and out of place. You certainly couldn’t say that this season had any defining characteristic that ran from story to story. However, although we, the viewers wouldn’t have known it at the time, the template for the future had already been set with the third story, “The Invasion”.

In a way this was probably for the best. Hartnell and Troughton had probably taken the show as far as it could go in the format that it was. In retrospect you can look at the exile seasons, 7 – 9, and say that what the show was doing could be characterized in the French phrase – Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter – or to put it another way,  fall back to jump further, as in taking a longer run up. But that, as they say, is a story for another day.